[thuhg] 
,| 1. | a cruel or vicious ruffian, robber, or murderer. |
| 2. | (sometimes initial capital letter ) one of a former group of professional robbers and murderers in India who strangled their victims. |
[thuhg-uh-ree] , noun | thug (thŭg) n.
[Hindi ṭhag, perhaps from Sanskrit sthagaḥ, a cheat, from sthagati, sthagayati, he conceals; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots.] thug'ger·y n., thug'gish adj. |
thug
member of a well-organized confederacy of professional assassins who traveled in gangs throughout India for several hundred years. (The earliest authenticated mention of the thugs is found in Ziya'-ud-Din Barani, History of Firuz Shah, dated about 1356.) The thugs would insinuate themselves into the confidence of wayfarers and, when a favourable opportunity presented itself, strangle them by throwing a handkerchief or noose around their necks. They then plundered and buried them. All this was done according to certain ancient and rigidly prescribed forms and after the performance of special religious rites, in which the consecration of the pickax and the sacrifice of sugar formed a prominent part. Although the thugs traced their origin to seven Muslim tribes, Hindus appear to have been associated with them at an early period; at any rate, their religious creed and practices as worshipers of Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, showed no influence of Islam. The fraternity possessed a jargon of its own (Ramasi) and signs by which its members recognized each other
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